The external tank that would fuel a rescue shuttle flight during NASA's Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, planned in May, is about half-way through its 900-mile journey to Kennedy Space Center. The 15-story tank shipped from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans on Sunday, and is being towed on the covered barge Pegasus through the Gulf of Mexico and around the Florida peninsula.
The tank is expected to arrive Saturday morning at KSC's turn basin, where it will be transferred to a transporter and wheeled into the Vehicle Assembly Building.
There, it will be lifted to a vertical position and moved to a checkout cell.ET-131, as it the rust-colored tank is dubbed, will eventually be connected to a pair of solid rocket boosters and the shuttle Endeavour, which is the rescue vehicle for Atlantis' planned May 12 Hubble flight.
If no rescue is needed, Endeavour and its external tank are slated to blast off June 13 on a mission to complete the International Space Station's Japanese laboratory.
Built by Lockheed Martin Corp., The tank is nearly 28 feet in diameter and weighs about 1.7 million pounds when loaded with propellant. You can read more about the technical details of external tanks here.
IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the images. Above, in New Orleans on Feb. 15, NASA and Lockheed Martin managers accompany ET-131 to Michoud Harbor. Credit: Lockheed Martin. Below: On Dec. 3, 2008, tugboats maneuvered the Pegasus barge and External Tank 130 close to the dock in the turn basin near the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
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